Alone Together #5

Welcome to solo play!

The design is fairly simple. The lock is just a scene that cannot be moved past until a number of narrative elements (keys) can be found.

The original idea came from playing through the scenarios for the Alien RPG by Free League.  Each Act required a number of scenes be completed before the players moved on. I realized my solo adventures could use a similar structure and the Key-Lock scenario was born to challenge myself. 

You will notice that my scenarios are set up in a mostly three act structure with 2-5 keys for each act. To use in your own games I would suggest the following structure outlined before.

Creating structure

To use for your own solo play I would suggest doing the following:

1. Set the scene (Where are you, who's with you, what do you want, etc). 

2. Create a list of narrative "keys" that you need to complete before creating a new scene. This list can be as long or short as you want, but challenge yourself to close the scene out only once you have completed all the required narrative elements. (see Choosing Keys below)

3. Once you have all of your 'keys' for a current scene then you can decide on the next scene to move to. Just like a movie, a following scene can be a flashback or leap far forward in time. It can take place mere seconds later, or jump to another location. 

Choosing a Scene

When choosing your next scene the most important question to ask is one that catches you attention. With an infinite number of options before you, analysis paralysis can kill a story when trying to decide what's next. 

So don't worry about what you need to do, but focus instead on what you want to do. You can always create flashbacks or ask an oracle should there be any gaps in the story. The Key-Lock structure is fast and loose to ensure that the player is being driven forward in the story and not burdened with excessive systems and boring details.

Create a running table of contents as you track your scenes. Just like any book, your story can benefit from chapters, acts, and scenes with big bold titles that quickly reference what happened.

Creating Keys

To create keys I would suggest the following.

1. Steal my work. Take any and all keys I have released and put them in a table or list for your own use. 

2. When determining how many keys to assign to each scene I would suggest two methods. Pick any keys that are interesting and drive the story forward. Add at LEAST one random key to a scene to 

3. Create a list of table of narrative keys (which are story prompts) that can grow and evolve as you play. Each key can be assigned a number should you need to roll for random results. Keep this close by for reference.

4. If you ever have a question about your story consider turning the question into a narrative key. "Who is trying to kill me?" becomes "Notice a threat nearby".  "Do I have the right tool?" becomes "Find something useful" or "Discover a setback." 

I hope this helps. I will hopefully be publishing a guide for Key-Locks and how players can use it in their home solo games soon. This post may seem a bit scattered, and I apologize for that. I have a couple toddlers set on 'helping' me type this up.

If you have any questions you can also reach out via discord to theNwDm.